Picks and Pans Review: The Efficiency Expert

Not much goes on in this Australian comedy, directed by Mark Joffe. It's about a small-time moccasin company under the clock-watching scrutiny of Hopkins. Will Hopkins go through with his recommendations to shut down half the plant, or will he listen to the vague, humane stirrings in his heart and come up with a plan that creates capitalism with a smiley face? If you re silly enough to believe the former, you deserve to have Glengarry Glen Ross playwright David Mamet as a permanent houseguest.

Hopkins does a nice job at suggesting the flickering of a soul deep within a faceless bureaucrat. The greatest pleasure, though, is Ellery Ryan's cinematography, which somehow makes the dingy old shoe company (shot in Spotswood, Australia, and its ugly industrial surroundings) shabbily pleasant. (PG)